From:	Wordman <wordman@*******.COM>
Subject:	Re: A new gun for the New Millennium
Date:	Mon, 1 Feb 1999 22:13:47 -0500

David B wrote:
> The current theory is that it's an Aurora prototype.

I don't buy the Aurora spy-plane idea. With satellites being what they are,
the need for a spy-plane that much better than the SR-71 seems way to
marginal to justify the cost.

I will buy the hyper-sonic plane idea, though. Scientific American this
month (Feb 1999) has an article on the next gen of... well... concepts meant
to bring payload into low-earth orbit. Among the topics discussed are
scramjets. The military, at least economically speaking, can make a much
better case for investing in low-cost orbit-attaining tech than they can for
spy planes.

Wordman